Following Third Visit to Southwest Border, Rep. Courtney Calls for Congressional Action on Bipartisan Border Deal
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Joe Courtney issued the following statement after returning from El Paso, Texas on Friday with eight Members of Congress, led by Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, to see Paso de Norte Bridge, El Paso Sector Enhanced Holding Facility, and Annunciation House.
“Last week, I traveled to El Paso, Texas with a group of eight colleagues from the U.S. House of Representatives to visit the U.S.-Mexico Border, and meet with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, members of the border patrol, migrants, and local community members about the dire need for orderly controls at the border, stop the flow of fentanyl, and reform our immigration system—which all of us in eastern Connecticut regard as critical priorities.
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“This was my third visit to the southwest border since coming to Congress—the first time to Nogales, Arizona in 2007, then to Brownsville, Texas in 2018, and El Paso this year. El Paso is part of a metropolitan area of two million people divided by the Rio Grande—Juarez, Mexico to the south and El Paso to the north. Every day, thousands of vehicles and pedestrians cross the Paso de Norte Bridge, one of the “ports of entry” that our customs officers handle with professionalism, accommodating legal transits and intercepting migrants who are without documents and taken into custody.
“The officers also screen vehicles for illegal drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, many times driven by U.S. citizens. Despite their best efforts, the volume of traffic is overwhelming their understaffed ranks, and out of date infrastructure and equipment at the bridge clearly need immediate attention. Officers described working 16-hour days to keep the posts manned, and how the drug cartels’ devious concealment of contraband too often outmatches the limited technology they are equipped with.
“For example, there are Xray machines that vehicles drive through, but they are not capable of identifying drugs. During our briefing at the bridge, Officer Salas, pictured below, showed me the one and only handheld drug detection unit at the port of entry for suspicious packages. Despite being under resourced, CBP did seize record quantity of illegal drugs last year. But it was obvious that border staff need more sophisticated drive-through drug detection booths—which are being deployed at other parts of the border—and many more handheld units to detect and protect our officers from dangerous exposure to fentanyl. In fact, the ports of entry where the Biden administration has had the funding to install new inspection machines has increased scanning capacity of passenger vehicles for fentanyl from just two percent to 40 percent.
“It was obvious to any observer that Congress needs to pass the pending border supplemental bill which will add more trained staff and upgrade our ports of entry across the southwest border with the latest inspection machines that detect fentanyl quickly and effectively.
“Finally, this fact-finding trip reaffirmed the desperate need for migrants to have a clear pathway to legal status and stable employment in critical sectors, including agriculture. In eastern Connecticut, farmers, restaurants, and hotels struggle with cumbersome visa rules to hire legal immigrant workers who they rely on to fill jobs that otherwise remain vacant.
“Since coming to Congress, I have been working wherever and whenever possible to find bipartisan paths to ensure there is order at the border and limit illegal entry, but also working with key stakeholders in eastern Connecticut’s agriculture, hospitality, and construction sectors to improve pathways to address chronic labor shortages that hinder economic growth.
“I applaud Senate Republicans and Democrats, led in part by Connecticut’s Chris Murphy, for taking bipartisan action to get us closer to reaching this goal. Notably, the bipartisan compromise would deploy 100 new fentanyl detection machines and over 1,500 new U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel; expedite work authorizations so those with credible asylum claims can support themselves and their family as soon as possible; and provide urgent resources to help communities provide basic services that are under strain.
“This trip, like the two previous ones, once again demonstrated to me and my colleagues how, with enough targeted investments, we can assist the talented, hardworking border professionals to strengthen control at the border. The endorsement by their professional association and union leadership is a powerful signal that Congress needs to act quickly and enact the bipartisan compromise.”
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